Those old movies, with a manly star like Humphrey Bogart or Cary Grant, made an impression on me. The tough guy could be stranded on an island, living on the prairie or on the African Queen, and they always manage to shave. Invariable, if the fella isn’t shaving, it’s because he is drunk all the time.
In The African Queen, Humphrey Bogart explains it. “A man alone, he gets to living like a hog.” Inevitably, a woman throws all the booze away and civilizes him.
Politico: Far Right wants more babies.
Real Clear Politics: Have more babies.
Based on recent articles, we are supposed to worry about not having enough babies and people who worry about not having enough babies.
Back in the 1980’s, before we were afraid all the time, I supported several environmental groups. Sierra Club, World Wildlife Fund and a few others. Never Greenpeace, they were already crazy. World population was an issue of interest, so I supported a group called Negative Population Growth.
They were completely reasonable, but in retrospect, I can see how they could go off-the-rails in a catastrophic way.
Maybe it’s Obama’s fault or capitalism or something, but my retiree health care is garbage. I don’t know, maybe it’s fine, but being a public school teacher, I never had to pay for much. Paying the first $8000 doesn’t sound like good coverage.
This is the only photo that is related to this gruesome tale that you’d want to see.
Planet Fitness doesn’t judge perverts.
Working out with my brother has been going well. We have worked out three times per week for over six months. We’ve only missed three or four days in that entire time. I’m working out with 150 lbs on the bench press. That’s 30 lbs more than I did in high school. I am up at least a couple of plates on every station. It’ a shame that has to end. We have to resign from Planet Fitness and find somewhere else.
The guy in the photo was shaving in the women’s locker room at Planet Fitness. The woman who took the photo was in the women’s locker room along with other women and a 12 year old girl.
It’s clear that this man does not sincerely believe that he is a woman. He looks to be in his 40’s, so isn’t some mixed up kid. He is sporting a man’s haircut. Shaving in the Planet Fitness locker room emphasizes that he is a man, and is an attempt to mock the women who are present.
The man is a degenerate who finds it gratifying to make women feel powerless and humiliated. If he wanted to be sensitive to their reasonable concerns, he could have changed in a stall or before he came to the gym. Alternatively, he should have made every effort to appear to be a woman.
The woman who took the photo, because she wanted photographic proof, had her membership cancelled by Planet Fitness.
Boycotting Bud Light was easy because it sucks. There is a Planet Fitness gym near my house, my brother’s house and almost anywhere I’m likely to go. For $30 per month, it’s a great value. Finding a suitable alternative won’t be easy.
We will have to ask about the transgender locker room policy at any gym we consider.
Since Davy and I started working out, I wanted to encourage symmetry. Some machines allow for a different weight for each arm. It made sense to start with the highest weight that either arm could handle. I don’t want to develop a lobster claw, where one arm is much stronger than the other. That might be a fiddler crab I’m thinking of.
WSJ: New Approach to Back Pain
WSJ: New Approach to Back Pain
It seems like everyone I know has suffered from a bout of lower back pain. What we used to call Lumbago, and is now, often called Sciatica.
Symptoms may range from a twinge when remaining in a particular position too long up to being unable to move without excruciating pain. Every doctor had the patient go through the same process.
Let’s try stretching exercises, then medicated patches, moving on to steroid shots. Hopefully, the problem resolves itself by that point. Surgery is the last resort.
Common causes include injury, arthritis and degenerative changes in the spine. It tends to start at midlife with the natural wear and tear of aging. But often there is no clearly identifiable physical cause, leaving patients to veer from one ineffective treatment to another—including highly addictive prescription opioids.
The patient doesn’t veer, the doctors do.
Studies have shown that nonsurgical approaches can be more effective and less expensive than surgery.
I’ve known two people who progressed to back surgery. Both had a full recovery with no return of symptoms. Both were tall guys who were college athletes.
In a study at multiple sites nationwide, researchers are testing the effectiveness of four nonsurgical treatments in connection with specific personal traits of patients. Each treatment has been shown to work, though not equally well for everyone.
The four treatments: acceptance-and-commitment therapy, which helps people learn new skills for dealing with pain; duloxetine, a medication used for depression, anxiety and chronic musculoskeletal pain; an online program with personalized messages to teach lifestyle skills for pain management; and a form of exercise therapy with stretches, strength training and hands- on treatment by a physical therapist or chiropractor.
Three of those treatments would feel like the doctor isn’t doing anything.
In the first clinical trial of PRT [Pain Reprocessing Therapy], co-led by Ashar, 151 people with mild to moderate back pain were randomized into three groups. One got four weeks of intensive PRT, one received a placebo saline injection in the back, and one received care as usual. With PRT, 66% reported being pain free or nearly so after treatment, while only 20% of people who had the placebo and 10% of those in usual care reported similar improvements.
It’s pretty obvious that the medical community doesn’t understand back pain or how the spine works. Training people to live with the pain is not a decent answer. Better research is needed to determine what treatments will work for specific causes.
WSJ: Stop Worrying About Sleep
WSJ: Stop Worrying About Sleep
Everyone knows that getting eight hours of sleep is the key to health and happiness.
Everyone should know to doubt anything that everyone knows. The knowledge that “everyone knows” is built from half-assed news reports, advertising and unverified assertions made often enough.
Thomas Edison only slept 4 hours per night, but he was a dick. Nikola Tesla slept about 2 hours per night, but he wasn’t mentally or emotionally stable.
The trick is to know that everyone is different, and to pay attention to what works for you. I do well at 1 1/2 hour intervals. I can sleep for 6, 7.5 or 9 hours and feel refreshed, but if I do 6 hours for more than a few days, it takes a toll.
But one of the worst things you can do about your lack of sleep is to stress out about it, say scientists and doctors. Forcing yourself to try to sleep better will backfire.
“The more you focus on going to sleep, you’re not able to sleep,” says Dr. Reena Mehra, director of sleep-disorders research at Cleveland Clinic. “It works against the individual.”
People obsess over mundane human requirements like sleeping, drinking water or eating at specific times due to some news article they’ve read or heard about on NPR. It’s best to not obsess over things humans have done for thousands of years.
WSJ: Oregon Decriminalized Hard Drugs
WSJ: Oregon Decriminalized Hard Drugs
EUGENE, Ore.—Soon after Oregon became the first state to decriminalize all drugs in 2020, Officer Jose Alvarez stopped arresting people for possession and began giving out tickets with the number for a rehab helpline.
People sprawled on sidewalks and using fentanyl with no fear of consequence have become a common sight in cities such as Eugene and Portland. Business owners and local leaders are upset, but so are liberal voters who hoped decriminalization would lead to more people getting help. In reality, few drug users are taking advantage of new state-funded rehabilitation programs.
Anybody could have seen this coming, but somehow, they still think they are smarter than the rest of us. In Econ 100, you learn that people respond to incentives. Remove disincentives to take hard drugs, and more people take hard drugs.
Politico: CDC wants to be trusted.
Mandy Cohen wants to win back America’s trust.
Perhaps this article is incomplete or misrepresents Mandy Cohen. I hope so, because we need a CDC with integrity.
The new CDC director spent her first two months on the job telling audiences in New York, Wisconsin and Washington state the agency has made mistakes, a mea culpa of sorts meant to show that she understands past shortcomings.
Did Mandy Cohen go into detail about what mistakes were made, by whom and what action is being taken to make sure mistakes don’t happen again? Absent further information, a good assumption is that Mandy Cohen gave the vague and impersonal “Mistakes were made.” line.
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo on Wednesday warned healthy adults under the age of 65 against taking the newly approved Covid-19 vaccine.
Cohen called efforts to undercut vaccine uptake “unfounded and, frankly, dangerous.”
“I want to make sure folks know, particularly in Florida, that vaccination remains a safe way in terms of protecting against severe disease, hospitalization and death,” she said. “It’s important for Americans to get these shots.”
I hope Mandy Cohen did better than this. If not, she is completely inept and the CDC is going to continue to spiral down the drain. American doesn’t have a CDC anymore.
Does Mandy Cohen think that anyone gives two shits that she says something is ‘unfounded and frankly dangerous”? That’s what not being trusted means. She should be providing studies and research. She should assume that Surgeon General Ladapo knows more and cares more about Floridan citizens than she does.
“A part of trust building is making sure people know I wouldn’t recommend something for the American people I wouldn’t recommend to my own family,” she told POLITICO.
There are plenty of people who recommend things for their families that sound batshit crazy. Why would we think that Mandy Cohen is any different? The CDC confidently lied to us. She could be lying.
It’s hard to believe that anyone cares about Covid.
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